Season 10, Episode 24. Episode ID 221

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Topic

Favorite apps episode 2026. Also apps off the beaten path that you use.

Drew's List

Favorites

Geany — the writing machine; every episode gets written in it. Over VS Code (an entire browser to edit a config file) and over Neovim (prose doesn't want modal editing).
Flameshot — screenshot, annotate, done. Nothing else has the annotate-in-place flow.
Thunar — the file manager that stays out of the way and never redesigns itself out from under you.
qimgv — instant, keyboard-driven image viewer nobody mentions.
OBS Studio — FOSS that won its category outright; there is no second place.
Audacity — knowing a tool cold beats a prettier tool you don't.
Kitty — but honestly any terminal; the terminal wars ended and nobody noticed.
Firefox — still the only real non-Chromium engine; the engine matters more than the wrapper.
Helium — Chromium with the Google stripped out; the second browser done right.

Self-hosted

Plex — self-hosting that passes the spouse test (yes, over Jellyfin — the clients win).
Channels DVR — cable without the cable company; nobody in the Linux space talks about it.
Linkwarden — bookmarks that can't rot; archives full page copies.
SearXNG — your own search engine; once it's your default you stop thinking about search.

Off the beaten path / wrote it myself

Bash — 1,460 shell scripts in ButterForge; the real favorite app is the one I keep writing.
ghee — my fzf git suite; when existing tools are 90% right, the last 10% is why you write your own.

Nate's List

Top 2026 Apps

DaVinci Resolve - Worth every penny, the best video editor ever created. The only one that might come close is final cut but that's only for Macs and who has time for that.
Easy Effects - If you want a simple way to control each applications sound volume, very easy solution. Also can EQ your sound system which is a really nice touch for free.
JellyFin - One of the best streaming platforms available that doesn't stab you in the back like another certain streaming platform that shall not be named.
Finamp - very good music player for jellyfin. Use it with my server to play music through my house speakers.
Micro - Very good simple text editor. Highly recommend for quick little edits and uses the correct keys.
Vim - The best editor ever made. Don't care of other people's opinions, get over yourselves.
Reaper - One of the best DAWs out there (Digital Audio Workstation). Has support for all OSes, can use it for free as long as you want. Once you have a license, you can use it on multiple machines.
VLC - The best video media player ever created. Some call it bloat, I call it the jack of all trades pertaining to video playback. Works on every OS and has great support for video file formats when other players can't. Even on MacOS, VLC is my method of watching videos since MKV files are frown upon.
0 A.D. - The best FOSS game that has ever been made. I wish someone else would put as much effort into another FOSS game, but this is what we have and it's still really good.
Asunder - Very good CD ripper than does a great job pulling the information from the CD. Also, if it makes mistakes, can very easily correct it before it finish finalizing the rip.
Immich - Decent self hosting Pictures and Videos solution. Though it has had issues in the past. So far it's been working well for me.
Home Assistant - If you want to home lab, this App is pretty much THE app to use. For automations, or simple commands, it has you covered. Can even program it to do certain functions at certain times of the day.
Notesnook - One of the best note taking apps available that syncs to all devices and can use markdown. Highly recommend a note taking.